Flora of New Zealand Series

purple fuzzweed

Much-branched, erect or spreading perennial herb or subshrub, (10)-15-40 cm tall. Stems moderately to densely covered in strigose, antrorse, appressed hairs, becoming almost glabrous and distinctly woody toward base. Lvs all cauline in mature plants, spathulate to narrow-oblanceolate, apetiolate and long-cuneate, obtuse to emarginate, mostly entire, rarely with 1-(2) pairs of shallow lobes near apex, often folded upwards, usually glabrous on upper surface, sometimes sparsely strigose and glandular, moderately strigose and sparsely glandular on lower, 8-18-(25) × 1-3-(5) mm. Capitula c. 10 mm diam. Inner involucral bracts narrow-elliptic to lanceolate, sparsely hairy, 5-6.5 mm long; outer bracts moderately strigose and glandular, from 2 mm long. Ray florets > 20; ligules pinkish to bluish purple, 2-4 mm long. Disc yellow. Achenes oblanceolate, with ribbed margins and 4-7 ribs on each face, sparsely to moderately hairy on faces and margins, glandular and with a few longer appressed hairs near base, 3.5-5 mm long; pappus 4.5-7 mm long.

N.: Cape Palliser (Wellington); S.: locally common in Nelson and Marlborough, collected once from between Waiau and Rotherham (N. Canterbury) and near Christchurch.

Australia 1880

Dry hillsides, coastal sites, rocky and gravelly areas.

FL Nov-May.

This sp. is somewhat variable in N.Z., particularly in the number of ribs on the achene faces; nevertheless all N.Z. material is referable to the type var. The sp. was first recorded by Kirk, T., Trans. Proc. N.Z. Inst. 12 : 398 (1880), who based his description of V. australis var. dissecta on plants of both V. cuneata and V. dissecta. He later [ Stud. Fl. N.Z. 295 (1899)] included Nelson and Marlborough material of V. cuneata as V. australis var. erecta along with plants from Taieri Plains, Otago, referred here to V. gracilis. V. cuneata was later confused with V. gracilis and has also been recorded as V. triloba and V. scabra. V. cuneata is easily distinguished from V. gracilis by the appressed, strigose stem and lf hairs (Fig. 20).